Royal Mail Strikes | Scale Model Shop

The Communication Workers Union (CWU) has notified us they plan to call on their members who collect, sort and deliver parcels and letters to take six days of strike action in November.

Royal Mail has well-developed contingency plans, but we cannot fully replace the daily efforts of our frontline workforce. We’ll do what we can to keep services running, but you should expect disruption when strike action is taking place.

ACAS facilitation Royal Mail and CWU

Royal Mail and CWU have agreed to jointly engaged with ACAS facilitation in an attempt to resolve the current disputes on Pay and Change. There is a commitment on both sides to reach a resolution however we all acknowledge there are significant difficulties to overcome. An opening session took place on Tuesday 25 October and a further joint session is taking place on Thursday 27 October. Facilitated talks is something we have been requesting for some time and we’re working through the process as overseen by ACAS.

What does this strike action mean for your services?

In the event this planned strike action takes place, it is different to the national strike action which has previously taken place. Your collection and delivery services will be directly affected on some of these days of strike action, not all days. This is because CWU members in different parts of Royal Mail are each taking one day of strike action over a three-day period in w/c 31 October and again in the following week, w/c 7 November. We’ve summarised the impact we expect these strikes to have on services, in the table below:

Strike Date

Which parts of Royal Mail are taking strike action?

How are services affected?

Wednesday 2 November & Tuesday 8 November 2022

Distribution Centres

National Distribution (HGV drivers)

• Normal business collections operating
• Normal deliveries operating
• Some high-volume collections from customers will not operate

Thursday 3 November & Wednesday 9 November 2022

Mail Centres – Parcel and Letter Processing and Collection teams based in Mail Centres

• Some business customer collections will not take place
• Limited collections from Post Offices and postboxes
• Normal deliveries operating, but with fewer items than usual

Friday 4 November & Thursday 10 November 2022

Delivery Offices and Collection teams based in Delivery Offices

• Some business customer collections will not take place
• Limited collections from Post Offices and postboxes
• No normal parcel deliveries, no delivery of letters
• Delivery of Special Delivery items and Tracked 24 parcels (as resources allow)
• Delivery Offices and Customer Service Points closed

Information about deliveries

Strike action in delivery offices will take place on Friday 4 November and Thursday 9 November. Customers will not receive a delivery on those days except for Tracked 24 and Special Delivery items. Customer Service Points will be closed on those days and Redelivery and Parcel Collect services won’t be operating.

Information about delays

Although deliveries will take place every day except Friday 4 November and Thursday 9 November, strikes elsewhere in Royal Mail mean there will be delays to the items being collected, processed and delivered during this period.

Business Collection Information

Business collections are performed by a number of Royal Mail teams. They’re taking strike action on different days which means your collection will be affected on one day during each week of strike action takes place.

Larger vehicle collections are more likely to be affected on 3 and 9 November and smaller van collections on 4 and 10 November. However, the nature of these strikes means we won’t be able to confirm in advance which day your collection will be affected.

Strike Date

Collection services operating

Collection services not operating

Thursday 3 November & Wednesday 9 November

Business customer collections performed by delivery offices

Business customer collections performed by mail centres

Friday 4 November & Thursday 10 November

Business customer collections performed by mail centres

Business customer collections performed by delivery offices/delivery teams

If you do not receive a collection, you will receive a collection on the following working day. Uncollected items can be taken to your nearest mail centre. Information about your nearest mail centre is available online

Information for customers who drop off items into our network or use Post Offices

If you usually drop sealed bags of items at a Post Office please continue to do so. Post Offices will be open as usual.

If you usually drop off at a Customer Service Point, please note they will be closed on Friday 4 November and Thursday 10 November. Instead on these days, you can drop off at a Post Office which will be open as usual.

Customers also have the option to take sealed bags to one of 1700 Collect+ locations on days when strike action is taking place. More information can be found here

Collections from Post Offices will be limited on Thursday 3, Friday 4, Wednesday 9 and Thursday 10 November because of strike action by mail centre and delivery office teams who usually collect from them.

Royal Mail Tracked 24 and Special Delivery Information

We will continue to collect, prioritise and deliver Special Delivery and Royal Mail Tracked 24 items throughout this week, including on strike days.

On Friday 4 and Thursday 9 November, we will deliver as many Special Delivery and Royal Mail Tracked 24 parcels as possible (including Covid test kits and medical prescriptions) wherever resources allow us to do so.

We will not be able to guarantee delivery by 9am or 1pm next day during strike action and we will suspend the delivery guarantee for items posted on Wednesday 2 November. Customers should expect delays to some Special Delivery items if posted just before, during or immediately after strike action.

We are really sorry strike action causes you, your business and your customers disruption. After any strike action we’ll get your services back to normal as quickly as possible and we have increased our network capacity and resources to assist with this.

Useful links:

• You can find the latest industrial action information at https://www.royalmail.com/latest-news
• You can sign up for proactive service updates at https://www.royalmail.com/serviceupdates

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